Lady Carnarvon on Living on the Downton Abbey Set | This Morning

now earlier this week we brought you the exciting news that we'll be presenting next Thursday show live from Downton Abbey's Highclere Castle ahead of the big film release but before we pay the very famous castle visits we thought we should brush up on its history a little bit and who better to learn from and that one individual who calls the castle we're not talking about Mary Crawley in fact this is Lady can album welcome to the show thank you well you've got more lights than I do only just I would've thought 300 rooms you've got something like so the history of Highclere itself it's been in the family since 1679 I think and so when you married the 8th Earl of Carnarvon was the thought of you know that being your home something that you thought about I didn't think about it cuz my father always stood alive and I thought he'd live for many more years so actually I didn't give it much thought that was probably quite good because it's only as its unfolded that you realize some of the challenges and you just put one foot in front of another rather than have a sense of panic about what all that all there is to do because it must be overwhelming I mean 300 rooms it's your right Holly sometimes I do feel quite overwhelmed and other times it doesn't feel quite so bad you go for a walk with the dogs around the gardens and look at the trees you think oh my god that's very lucky and I mean it is a beauty there's nothing quite like it what the effect with all of these houses there your current family member that team of people is a custodian of it for future generations and you've got to you have to keep them running and these days they have to be run as a as a military business but also sort of financial business as well ISM it has to be a business doesn't it well it does I mean every single month gotta pay the salaries and it doesn't come from anywhere special other than the fact we're working to create the events to pay the salaries there's there's no secret source of money and I have looked it's the stories the heritage I really enjoy writing and by chance I bought the Christmas book at the same time as a family film so it's been a bit of good luck in a sense although I've worked quite hard writing it so it's just looking at the marketing platform and seeing how can we best help Highclere with it and we are so lucky and downs and of course the home Atlanta was ITV as well so it's it's the great story as it went through the TV series there a hesitation when when the producers came to you and said we'd very much like to base Downton here at Highclere and you're very used to it because you do we've done festivals and pop videos music I mean it's so so you certainly used to that but that's a big chunk of time for you we didn't know we didn't know how successfully a beer could just be a one-off in the end it carried on so I also knew Julian Emma Fellowes so that's one of the reasons they came and I thought that if I was really unhappy perhaps I could just sit down and have a conversation but actually I trusted them I thought Julian's has a great way with scripts particularly with this period roundabout Gosford Park and he brings a certain engages and we all fall in love with so many of the characters and I mean that there must be something magical about saying your home transformed into a working film set sort of walking in and you've got you know Dame Maggie Smith they're performing I mean what what are those days like when it's all up and running so you just see you just see people and they open every single window in February and they say oh my god it's so cold how do you live here so we don't open the window that's what you do for all the different things so so it looks different when they're making it to what you see on TV but I am I haven't yet seen the film so I'm so excited to see it well one of the the parts of the year when I clear burst into incredible magical life is Christmas and and your Christmas is there a legendary year and a half's worth of research has gone in into this book and and this we both said this morning this is so far apart I know it's just maybe so it's like it's the perfect combination Christmas and dad's gonna be so what have you put in here when it's stories as recipes because food is at the heart of all of our Christmases and then planning and preparation so I write a story about Christmas at Highclere in 880 because there's been a home at Highclere since at least 749 ad I think the visible history of a house like hype there and the other stately homes it's like an anchor for us all in a quite tumbling and difficult world at the moment so I think houses like Highclere in the sense of history can give us a great sense of reassurance I thought we need a lot of reassurance starting 800 a few other parts as well and then move forward to Christmas today it's about memories and my memories of my mother making you know using up the turkey and macaroni cheese you know some of the dishes are very straightforward and others are what Paul the chef might do I'm just the family cook who loves standing around cooking and chatting as I do with your you know sharing it and Paul is a very talented chef so it's a bit of a mixture between the two bit of our G bhaji well it's a beautiful book and we cannot wait to come to your home thank you so much for having us thank you so much for asking me thanks you

Channel: This Morning

Views: 79,408

Rating: 4.9152122 out of 5

Keywords: this morning, holly willoughby, phillip schofield, this morning funniest, Holly & Phillip funny, lady carnarvon, downton abbey, highclere castle, countess of carnarvon, christmas at highclere, downton abbey film, downton abbey set

Id: KI4prGfHZEY

Length: 5min 38sec (338 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019